Last night's 4-2 win over the Islanders was an ugly win for the Hurricanes, so it probably won't surprise you to hear that they were outchanced at even strength. The Canes have made somewhat of a habit of pulling out wins like this as last night was only the fifth time this season they were outchanced and the third time they won a game where that happened. I'm not sure what that says about the team but at least they were able to pull out a win despite not being at their best for the entire game. We've seen this team put together better performances than last night and not be rewarded for it, so I guess you can consider this making up for lost luck.

The roster not being at 100% obviously effects how well this team can control play at even strength, so any wins are good right now. The Canes have enough forward to get by right now and some of their depth players have performed admirably in these last three games or so. The defense, however, is hurting badly and it's had a big impact on Carolina's territorial play. All teams have to go through injuries, but that doesn't change the fact have a noticable talent drop-off after their first pairing. The Canes do have some organizational depth on their blue line, but it's hard to expect guys from the AHL to slide into Pitkanen, Gleason and McBain's roles without some growing pains. This group will have their good and bad nights but defensive breakdowns and mistakes are going to happen that will result in some grade-A scoring chances for the opposing team. This is what we've been seeing the last few games but the Canes were still able to edge out a win despite the defensive lapses, so let's be happy but cautious going forward.

"Here we go again" was the phrase uttered by many Hurricanes fans after they saw their team fall behind early in the first period and were forced to play from behind yet again. Even more grumbles of frustration were unleashed later on that period when the Hurricanes were able to mount an attack but could not get anything past Islanders goaltender Kevin Poulin. Things seemingly reached a season-low in the second period when the Islanders just dominated the Hurricanes, outshooting them 12-1 mid-way through and looking like they were going to coast their way to a shutout win. After last night's collapse against the Tampa Bay Lightning, many Hurricanes fans were hoping for a better showing tonight and that this team would come out with a little more fire than they were showing.

The tides would then shift in Carolina's favor late in the second period when Islanders forward Matt Martin was whistled for an interference call. The Canes would then quickly make the Islanders pay by getting a lucky goal off a faceoff and then follow it up less than a minute later with a goal from Jordan Staal to tie the game. What had happened prior to that was now all but irrelevant as the Canes managed to put themselves in a position to win the game despite playing so poorly for the first 40 minutes. All they had to do was go out and finish the job, something they couldn't do yesterday but did tonight.

Now rejuvenated, the Hurricanes came out very strong in the third period and took control of the game, just as they did against this same Islanders game a couple weeks ago. Their top-two lines were finally clicking and their hard work paid off as a terrific shift from the Jordan Staal line resulted in Bobby Sanguinetti getting the game-winning goal. They would continue to wear down the Islanders and eventually salt away a 4-2 win after Alex Semin added on an empty netter in the dying seconds.

This was a thrilling victory and a much needed morale booster after the last three games, but I'm sure many fans would prefer to see this team show more of a complete effort instead of having to rally from behind like they have so many times this season. The fact that the Canes have been able to battle back and win games like this speaks a lot about their character and determination, but it isn't going to work every night. In the end, a win is a win and the Hurricanes will certainly take whatever they can get this year.

Carolina Hurricanes at New York Islanders
7 p.m., Nassau Coliseum
TV: FS-Carolinas, MSG+

Forgetting about last night's terrible 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning should be easy because the Canes play again tonight and hopefully they can restore some confidence with a win. They're still going to be without five key players but injuries haven't stopped other teams from winning, so the Hurricanes will continue to have to make do with what they have and put together a better effort than they did last night. Injuries are often considered an "excuse" by fans and in many cases, injuries can prevent a team from delivering their game plan effectively and make it tougher to win. This is why I'm not looking at soley wins and losses with this particular Hurricanes roster. What I want to see is them giving their full effort and show some progress heading forward. They did this on Thursday but lost because of terrible goaltending but they didn't last night when they completely laid an egg in the third period.

What happens tonight against the Islanders remains to be seen, but head coach Kirk Muller was clearly unhappy with the team's performance last night so we could see some changes to the lineup and hopefully a better looking team than last night. 

The Hurricanes have another game in about 14 hours and I'm sure many fans want to forget about last night's 5-2 loss to the Lightning as quickly as possible, so let's get the statistical analysis over with now. This game will be remembered as a complete stinker for most Carolina followers, but that mostly applies to the third period. Let's not forget that the Hurricanes were reasonably in this game for the first 40 minutes. They played terrible in the third period and that is what everyone will remember because that's why they ended up losing the way they did. There is no excuse for how the team played during that frame and it was s terrible way to end this brief homestand, but saying that the season is over because they had a bad 20 minutes is just ridiculous.

Coming into this game off two straight losses and no divisional wins to their name, many fans considered Carolina's game against the Tampa Bay Lightning a "must win." It's still too early to consider any game a must win, but the Canes would have done themselves a huge favor down the line by getting a win over Tampa Bay at home. It would have been a great way to lift some sprits before going on the road again for the next two games. This wasn't a must win, but it was a big game for the Hurricanes but you wouldn't know that judging by the score, as Carolina ended up losing 5-2 on the back of a terrible third period which rivals the Florida game as some of the worst hockey this team has played this season. 

Carolina gave up the first goal yet again, but they managed to hang tough with the Lightning for a good portion of the game despite not being able to solve goaltender Mathieu Garon for the first 40 minutes. Down only 1-0 to begin the third period, the game was still in reach and the Canes could have easily found a way to get a point out of this game. Unfortunately, they came into the third period flat and let Tampa Bay walk all over them. The Lightning out-competed the Hurricanes, were able to easily maneuver around their defense and added on four goals for good measure.

The Hurricanes injury problems and lack of depth showed in a bad way tonight, but even with that there is no excuse for how bad they played in the third period tonight. The game was still within reach after 40 minutes but it looked like the Hurricanes thought the game was over before the third period even started. This kind of performance shouldn't be acceptable in any game but it's especially troubling when it happens against a divisional opponent who has already beaten you once this year. Again, the injury bug has hit this team hard right now with five players on the shelf in the span of a week, but that didn't stop them from staying competitive against Winnipeg on Thursday. Where was that in the third period tonight?

Usually this is where I'll say that the team needs to "forget about the loss and regroup," but I think a lot more work needs to be done here. You have to wonder if this is just one bad game or a sign of things to come? Hopefully it's the former.

Goaltenders are a tricky bunch to figure out. Fans will either love or hate them depending on how they perform in a ten game stretch. If they stand on their head for and steal a couple of games for their teams, the goalie will be heralded and be a front-runner for Team MVP. Whereas if they have an awful or sub-par stretch for ten games, fans will want their netminder on the first bus out of town and their back-up to get the majority of the starts. We've seen this in plenty of cities over the years (Vancouver and Philadelphia specifically come to mind) and are beginning to see glimpses of it in Carolina with incumbent starter Cam Ward.

Ward is normally beloved in Carolina for playing a critical role in the Hurricanes winning their only Stanley Cup in 2005-06, but his play as of late has left many Canes fans frustrated. He is currently sporting a save percentage of .896 and has given the Hurricanes only four games that fit under Hockey Prospectus' "quality start" guidelines. Goaltending can play such a critical role in winning and losing and what the Hurricanes have gotten from Ward so far isn't good enough to win games. His most recent outing against the Winnipeg Jets was especially bad, as Ward let in three very soft goals which ended up being the deciding factor in a game that the Hurricanes played well enough to earn at least a point.

As frustrating as Ward's start to the year is, I don't think there is much to worry about with him. Some may think that his is a sign of his career being on the downturn but let's not forget that he went through a worse bump in the road in the first half of last season.

Carolina has been a poor defensive team for the majority of this season, which makes it very surprising that two of their best defensive performances came in games where they were missing two of their top blue-liners. Those games being last week's win over Toronto and last night's 4-3 loss to Winnipeg. Carolina yielded only seven even strength scoring chances to the Jets and ten overall, which are season lows for the team an a testament to how well the defense played. The only lapse by the defense unfortunately came at the worst time when Joe Corvo made a poor play in the neutral zone which allowed the Jets to get the go-ahead goal in the third period. This mistake along with a terrible performance in net from Cam Ward are the main reasons why Carolina lost this game despite a great performance by most of the team.

This goes down as the most frustrating loss of the season but the Hurricanes injury-riddled roster did show us a lot of good things that could instill some confidence going forward.

Losing is always tough and losing when you outplay your opponents is even more frustrating. This is what happened to the Hurricanes tonight, as they dropped a 4-3 decision to the Winnipeg Jets despite outplaying them for most of the game and remain winless in Southeast Division play this season. With the roster crushed by injuries right now, you have to make the most out of good performances like this, so coming away empty handed really stings here.

This really would have been a great game for the Hurricanes to win. They managed to outplay a divisional opponent by outshooting them 29-17 and outchancing them 19-13 and get a glimpse of the future with Ryan Murphy playing well in his NHL debut. Unfortunately, they came away with nothing to show for their efforts except for another loss and no points earned in the standings. There are a lot of positives you can draw out of this game, especially with the Canes roster being in the shape that it is, but it's kind of hard to look on the bright side when your still winless in divisional play and just watched your team lose a game they probably should have won.

In the end, the Hurricanes couldn't get a timely save from Cam Ward and had a defensive lapse at the worst time, which sealed a frustrating loss. They will have to look past this and hope they can get a better performance in goal this Saturday against Tampa Bay. The Hurricanes recent success on their road trip means that the division isn't going to slip out of their hands any time soon and they should win more games in the upcoming weeks if they play like they did tonight.

Winnipeg Jets at Carolina Hurricanes
7 p.m., PNC Arena
TV: FS-Carolinas, TSN - Jets

Tonight's game against the Winnipeg Jets will be the Hurricanes first game against a Southeast Division opponent since the second game of the season where they were blown out by Tampa Bay. They've played fewer games within the division than any other team in the Southeast but this will change in the next week or so, as three of their next five games will be intra-division. I mentioned in an earlier post that the Canes have a great chance to gain an advantage over the rest of the Southeast, but they may have to do it with five key players out of the lineup. In the past week, the Canes have seen Joni Pitkanen, Jeff Skinner, Jamie McBain, Tim Gleason and Tim Brent all sustain injuries and a few of them are going to be out for longer than a few games. This is going to put a lot of pressure on their top players to produce because there isn't much depth present in the rest of the lineup.

The Hurricanes are going to be especially thin on defense tonight, so much that they needed to recall junior defenseman Ryan Murphy from the Kitchener Rangers to play tonight. Murphy was the team's first round pick in 2011 and he has shined as an offensive defenseman in the OHL. His counting numbers haven't been as impressive this year and he has been prone to defensive lapses from time to time, so it's not certain that he's ready for the NHL but he will be getting a test tonight and might even see top-four minutes. 

Carolina's entire organizational depth is going to be put to the test during this stretch of injuries and it will be interesting to see how some of the younger players perform. There are a lot of prospects who are confined to the minor leagues or fourth line minute because there's no room for them in the lineup but injuries are going to force at least one youngster into a bigger role for the Canes these next couple of games. It's up to them to take advantage of this opportunity and if Monday's game against the Canadiens is any indication, things could be very ugly. This roster is better than what they showed on that night, though so I have a feeling that we'll see a different team tonight against Winnipeg.

If you were to poll most Hurricanes fans right now, most would agree that Alexander Semin has been a great addition to the team. He has made their first line a real force to be reckoned with and is usually one of their best players every night. However, I'm sure that most people were hoping that he would have more than three goals 14 games into the season and only one at even strength. His current pace would give him roughly 10-11 goals on the year and that would be only 17-18 in a full-82 game season. It's not that Semin is playing poorly, but the goals just haven't been coming to him for whatever reason.

Going strictly by a goal-per-game rate, one might suggest that Semin is on a decline. He has scored at a rate that was between .4 and .6 goals-per-game for msot of his career but the last two seasons, he's dropped down to below .3. So if you were only looking at goals, then you could say that Semin is on the decline as an offensive player but it's not just all about goals and points. Something people often forget is that a lot of things need to go right for a player to score a goal. The most a player can do when trying to score is find a soft spot in the defense and do his best to pick an open corner in the net when firing a shot on net. I think most would say that Semin has been doing that so far.

So why doesn't he have more goals? To put it bluntly, he hasn't been receiving much shooting luck at all, especially when you compare his numbers with the rest of his career.